Sugar Bears 2015 GMC Terrain SLE-2 2.4 AWD

Grumpy Bear · October 7, 2020

127,500 Mile Service

10/07/2020

2015 GMC Terrain 2.4L

127,464 on the odometer

2,264 miles OCI (2,500 nominal target)

Purolator One PL15436 filter

Royal Purple 5W30 5 quarts

Used about 10-11 ounces (hair over a half pint) this OCI for a math rate of one quart in 6,800 or so. This is it's best so far. Remember we started at a quart in 600 miles.

Pulled a half pint sample for visual. Black and quite opaque.

If Royal Purple is good for nothing else it is a great cleaner.

Except under extreme use I find any consumption unacceptable in a 5K OCI but this is much better. If it cleans up to a point where is uses nothing in 2500 miles I will start lengthening the OCI again.

Winter coming on so I lowered spec to 5W30 from 10W30 and tightened filtration. One v BOSS. There is no means I currently know of to add an bypass filter on this rig nor a catch can. Could use both.

Rotate and balance tires. We've missed a few of these. Not good.

Adjusted parking brake cable. Thing was getting useless.

Added on bottle of Red Line S1 to the tank.

Late Note:

Better right this down.

1.) Quart in 600 miles Top End solvent clean. GM fluid. AMSOIL

2.) 1/2 a quart in 1,786 miles or a quart in 3600 miles. Royal Purple 10W30

3.) 1/3 of a quart in 2,264 miles or a quart in 6,792 miles. Royal Purple 5W30

Edited October 7, 2020 by Grumpy Bear

Grumpy Bear · October 23, 2020

10/22/2020 Checks

1,124 miles and it's still showing full. 120 grit paper seems about the right texture for these silly bullet style dip sticks. Straight about its circumference keeps it from 'wicking'. Good to know. Clean oil, even purple oil is hard to read. That purple goes away in a few hundred miles if you were wondering about that.

Grumpy Bear · October 23, 2020

10/23/2020 Maintenance

128,600 miles the +/- button for the transmissions manual mode is kaput. Diagnostic run today. Parts on order.

Grumpy Bear · October 28, 2020

10/28/2020 129,099 Miles

Added 8 ounces of makeup oil with 1,636 miles on this change. Roughly a quart in 6,500 miles. About the same as last service. I really dislike this dipstick. I'm told at the shop to read the low side. Finally a standard. And YES I read the book and the book says nothing. My drive is a 3* up slope and I'm using that as reference from now on.

Wife took the Honda to work today after getting about a block in this one and the check engine lite came on along with the stabilitrak service light. It was 28F this morning and she said it was rocking like a paint shaker so she turned around and swapped rides. Around 10 I went out and it was running? She left at 7. Wait...it wasn't warm. I shut it down. Plugged in the reader and.......nothing. Water temp was just over 100 F but it was running fine. Took it for a three hour drive and then to the shop. Coil they thought maybe. BUT.....no misfire history....grrrrrrrr

No trasmission parts either.....grrrrrrrrrrrr

Grumpy Bear · November 2, 2020

11/1/2020 129,500 Miles

A little over 2,000 miles so far on 8 ounces of add and I might have added 2 or 3 to much. After sitting over night it was a bit over full. None the less its looking like a quart in 8,000 miles. That is, it is still improving. I can live with that.

Added the spare Scan Gauge II to this vehicle to more closely monitor it's vitals.

Have conformation from Jasper Engines that the reman 2.4's they supply use a totally different ring package and modified breather system to eliminate both oil usage and moisture retention. They also offer reman 5.3's with AFM delete FYI.

diyer2 · November 2, 2020

With your experience with Honda's , trade it for a Honda.

Still liking our 19 CR-V.

Our 3 previous used Honda's didn't use that much oil.

Grumpy Bear · November 2, 2020

15 minutes ago, diyer2 said:

With your experience with Honda's , trade it for a Honda.

Still liking our 19 CR-V.

Our 3 previous used Honda's didn't use that much oil.

As annoying as this thing has been these past few months I must say that I am enjoying what it is teaching me a great deal. It is responding nicely.

She would like to get a Toyota SUV but a new motor in this one would be a fraction of the cost as it is paid for and otherwise in excellent shape. It's hers and she will do as she will do. We've had a string of Honda's and each a bit less 'all that' that the previous and yet better than many. Her Dad was a fan of Toyota products and we've had two. One was rock solid the other Pennzoil ruined and yet even it lasted over 300K. Just stop once in awhile and check the gas and fill the oil. Her first Toyota was about as perfect a car as a car could have been.

diyer2 · November 3, 2020

I changed the oil in my Sierra yesterday because the oil had 2800 miles on it. I use the trip odometer for oil. I was surprised when I looked at my maintenance records. It had been changed 15 months ago. Yea it sits. We use our other vehicle due to better mileage. Truck has 72106 miles on it.

Grumpy Bear · November 6, 2020

130,000 Mile Service

129,711 actual

2,247 OCI

PBL15436 Purolator and 5 quarts Costco Kirkland 5W30

8 ounces this oil change in use or a quart in 8,988 miles.

Balance and rotate tires. Fluids top off.

Edited January 8, 2021 by Grumpy Bear

Grumpy Bear · November 28, 2020

130,787 Mile Oil Check

11/28/2020

That's 1,086 miles actual on this change and it's still full.

Pretty dark for so few miles. Still...improvement.

Grumpy Bear · December 23, 2020

131,800 Mile Oil Check

12/22/2020

2,089 miles and added 4 ounces to bring it to the full mark.

A usage rate of a quart in 16,712 miles. Which means it is still improving.

Right after a change the reading is exceedingly difficult to find but it is obviously somewhere above full.

My additions are only to bring it to full so my estimations are obviously flawed but still useful.

I miss a flat dip stick. I do believe that given the Kirkland oil I'm now feeding it I will shorten the OCI another 500 miles to 2K. It's cheap and darkens quickly so it's doing it's job.

Vent system seems to be keeping up. A trace of moisture but not enough to create white snotty foam. Another reason to change more often. Oil will only hold about 2% moisture in suspension.

Grumpy Bear · January 8, 2021

132,500 Mile Service

132,404 actual

2,693 mile OCI (2,500 target)

6 ounces used this service for a quart in 14,363.

Previously 8,988 miles per quart. Still making improvement.

PBL15436 Purolator and 5 quarts Costco Kirkland 5W30

Grumpy Bear · January 26, 2021

133,389 Miles

Costco has been running a sale on the Kirkland five quart bottle twin packs at $21 a box so I bought four more for a total of six two packs now in inventory. I'm having oil changed for around $35 including disposal of waste and simple tire rotations. At 30,000 mile supply, minimum.

Almost one thousand miles (985) with no perceptible oil used. It's been looking a bit cleaner at this 1K mark with each oil change.

Grumpy Bear · February 5, 2021

133,880 Miles

@ 1,500 miles with no measurable usage. Last two oil changes this has not been true. So the shorter OCI's are showing consistent improvement.

New observation about 'bullet' type dipsticks. There is some difference between cold checks and hot checks when the temperature drops rapidly. About 4 ounces worth. Warm reading is the same but overnight reading is different. About the amount read between the low side and high side of the stick. Weird, right? Summer time, that is temps at 80 F read differently than cold winter temps at 20 F. I've never seen this on a blade type stick.

Time to replace the passenger side wiper. Finally tore... Just need a break in the weather...

Doublebase · February 6, 2021

I know you’re not going to listen to me, but I would not replace the engine in that thing.

I’d continue to buy the Kirkland oil and run 3,000 mile oil change intervals and see if I could eventually get the vehicle to 200,000 miles and then trade it in, with the assumption that it’ll just go to auction, where someone will buy it for cheap or it’ll get shipped overseas.

Oil consumption isn’t the worst thing in the world, it does naw at you, especially when you take care of a vehicle. It’s happened to me, but you can really keep an oil user going for a very long time with a little care and attention.

But to spend on an engine on a vehicle with 133,800 miles on it? You could lose the transmission at 150,000. Or the engine you put in could very well suffer the same issue, or entirely new ones.

There’s just so much that goes wrong when shops put engines in...they route a ground the wrong way and you have mysterious electrical issues. Something rubs against the exhaust (because it’s routed wrong) and you’re dumping coolant or transmission fluid. I’ve seen a Jeep Commander catch completely on fire six months after an engine replacement...fuel line was chafing against something and boom. Whole truck burnt to a crisp. I’m not saying it happens to every single repair, but it does happen. And to me, if you have to replace the engine, it’s a failed experiment. You bought the the car, you took care of it and it didn’t even matter. The engine needed replacing. I’d just keep that thing going and drive it to 200,000 or more. Just my opinion.

Edited February 6, 2021 by Doublebase